This invention relates to a pumpable ceramic, and more particularly, this invention relates to a ceramic composition which can be used in the construction industry applicable to a wide variety of temperature conditions to apply the ceramic to a vertical wall as well as to sloping and horizontal walls, such as roofs, to provide an inexpensive coating material for cement or styrofoam bases.
There is a significant need, particularly in the Caribbean and South American countries, for a construction material which can be mixed on site, applied to a base structure, including styrofoam, which can be worked such as troweled and yet sets in a sufficiently short amount of time that no mechanical anchors such as wires and other mechanism is required to hold the product onto vertical surfaces. Inexpensive housing is a requirement in developing countries and particularly inexpensive housing which can be erected rapidly without the need for skilled labor and which is capable of withstanding subtropical and tropical climates.
Argonne National Laboratory has been a leader in developing phosphate based cement or ceramic products which are useful for a wide variety of applications, as indicated by Wagh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,518 issued Jul. 8, 1997 for Method For Stabilizing Low-Level Mixed Wastes At Room Temperature, Wagh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,815 issued Nov. 3, 1998 for Method of Waste Stabilization Via Chemically Bonded Phosphate Ceramics, Singh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,894 issued Dec. 8, 1998 for Phosphate Bonded Structural Products From High Volume Wastes, Wagh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,809 issued Nov. 28, 2000 for Stabilization of Metal and Salt Anions in Phosphate Ceramics, Singh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,214 issued Mar. 20, 2001 for Pumpable/Injectable Phosphate-Bonded Ceramics, Wagh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,119 issued Dec. 24, 2002 for Chemically Bonded Phosphate Ceramics of Trivalent Oxides of Iron and Manganese and Wagh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,212 issued Feb. 11, 2003 for Chemically Bonded Phosphosilicate Ceramics, the entire disclosures of each of the above-referenced patents being incorporated herein by reference.
In general, the above patents disclose a chemically bonded monovalent alkali metal phosphate or ammonium hydrogen phosphate and a sparsely soluble oxide such as magnesium or calcium oxide with a variety of filler materials to provide a useful material for a wide variety of end products.
However, it has now been discovered that using a different ratio of materials provides a pumpable phosphate based cement product which can be used to form rigid vertical walls and roofs and facilitates rapid construction of buildings and other structures in a wide variety of temperature and humidity conditions.